clinton, 9/11, bush, iraq - part 3

clinton

there is a comedy show in canada ... well, we're funny up here, so there are several comedy shows actually ... but one had a skit the other night with three women having coffee and asking each other questions in the "if you had to choose a or b" vein ... several questions, several hilarious answers

then one question and answer summed up everything i could possibly try to explain about the u.s media and the whole clinton-lewinsky thing and why a lot of us canadians were scratching our heads up here during all the hoopla:

"if you had to sleep with the president of the united states or the prime minister of canada, which would you choose?"

long pause, then finally, "the prime minister of canada" ... cue silly girl shrieks and "ewwwwwwwwwws"

"why the prime minister of canada?"

"because if anyone found out, no one would care"

9/11

i was off work that day ... friend from manhattan called, "turn on cnn, a plane hit the world trade center" ... didn't have the nerve to admit to my american friend that of all the places he had shown me on my last trip to nyc that i wasn't sure what or where the world trade center was but promptly turned on the tv ... it was 9:01 a.m.

we both watched ... me in my living room, safe in canada, him from his balcony of his apartment building in manhatten ... i heard him softly mutter "shit" just before they started saying on cnn that another plane was coming

i thought it was the end of the world

a day later, a psychiatrist that worked at the hospital in toronto that i worked at came to my office ... we did lunch sometimes ... "come with me" she said and she was crying and didn't speak another word ... i followed her

we walked to the u.s. consulate ... crowds of us, canadians ... holding u.s. flags, laying flowers at the door ... sobbing ... hugging each other ... looking up at skyscrapers, not being able to imagine ... someone started singing "america, america, god sheds his light on thee" ... then we were all singing it ... or trying to, lots of us didn't know all the words ... but we hummed the hell out of it and cried some more

bush

he came to canada and made a joke in his speech, thanking the canadians who waved at him .... with all five fingers ... it was funny to me

he's been flipping the bird to his own people and the rest of the world for years ... not funny to me

iraq

on august 2, 1990, saddam hussein's forces invaded kuwait ... george h.w. bush said to king hussein of jordan "i will not allow this little dictator to control 25 percent of the civilized world's oil"

'nuff said

stay tuned for part 4 - the stuff about us that i'm ashamed of